Part 28 (1/2)
”No. It is sad. I have often thought he had the 'Sonata Pathetique' in his mind when he wrote it. But the note is mournful all through. There is no promise of happiness as in 'Maud.'”
”Then it is my turn to ask questions. Why did you hit upon that poem among so many?”
”Because it contains an exact description of our position here. Don't you remember how the poor fellow
”'Sat often in the seaward-gazing gorge, A s.h.i.+pwrecked sailor, waiting for a sail.'
”I am sure Tennyson saw our island with poetic eye, for he goes on--
”'No sail from day to day, but every day The sunrise broken into scarlet shafts Among the palms and ferns and precipices; The blaze upon the waters to the east; The blaze upon his island overhead; The blaze upon the waters to the west; Then the great stars that globed themselves in Heaven, The hollower-bellowing ocean, and again The scarlet shafts of sunrise--but no sail.”
She declaimed the melodious verse with a subtle skill that amazed her hearer. Profoundly moved, Jenks dared not trust himself to speak.
”I read the whole poem the other day,” she said after a silence of some minutes. ”Sorrowful as it is, it comforted me by comparison. How different will be our fate to his when 'another s.h.i.+p stays by this isle'!”
Yet neither of them knew that one line she had recited was more singularly applicable to their case than that which they paid heed to.
”The great stars that globed themselves in Heaven,” were s.h.i.+ning clear and bright in the vast arch above. Resplendent amidst the throng rose the Pleiades, the mythological seven hailed by the Greeks as an augury of safe navigation. And the Dyaks--one of the few remaining savage races of the world--share the superst.i.tion of the people who fas.h.i.+oned all the arts and most of the sciences.
The Pleiades form the Dyak tutelary genius. Some among a bloodthirsty and vengeful horde were even then pointing to the cl.u.s.tering stars that promised quick voyage to the isle where their kinsmen had been struck down by a white man who rescued a maid. Nevertheless, Grecian romance and Dyak lore alike relegate the influence of the Pleiades to the sea.
Other stars are needed to foster enterprise ash.o.r.e.
CHAPTER X
REALITY _V_. ROMANCE--THE CASE FOR THE PLAINTIFF
Night after night the Pleiades swung higher in the firmament; day after day the sailor perfected his defences and anxiously scanned the ocean for sign of friendly smoke or hostile sail. This respite would not have been given to him, were it not for the lucky bullet which removed two fingers and part of a third from the right hand of the Dyak chief. Not even a healthy savage can afford to treat such a wound lightly, and ten days elapsed before the maimed robber was able to move the injured limb without a curse.
Meanwhile, each night Jenks slept less soundly; each day his face became more careworn. He began to realize why the island had not been visited already by the vessel which would certainly be deputed to search for them--she was examining the great coast-line of China and Siam.
It was his habit to mark the progress of time on the rudely made sun-dial which sufficiently served their requirements as a clock. Iris happened to watch him chipping the forty-fourth notch on the edge of the horizontal block of wood.
”Have we really been forty-four days here?” she inquired, after counting the marks with growing astonishment.
”I believe the reckoning is accurate,” he said. ”The _Sirdar_ was lost on the 18th of March, and I make this the 1st of May.”
”May Day!”
”Yes. Shall we drive to Hurlingham this afternoon?”
”Looked at in that way it seems to be a tremendous time, though indeed, in some respects, it figures in my mind like many years. That is when I am thinking. Otherwise, when busy, the days fly like hours.”
”It must be convenient to have such an elastic scale.”
”Most useful. I strive to apply the quick rate when you are grumpy.”
Iris placed her arms akimbo, planted her feet widely apart, and surveyed Jenks with an expression that might almost be termed impudent.